In the late seventies a new disease was reported, which subsequently was referred to as Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). It is now generally accepted that a retrovirus referred to as HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), formerly known as Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV-III) or Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus (LAV) plays an essential role in the etiology of AIDS.
AIDS is characterized by a profound immunodeficiency due to low numbers of a subset of lymphocyte-T-helper cells, which are one target for HIV infection. The profound immunodeficiency in AIDS patients makes these patients highly susceptible to a variety of opportunistic infections of bacterial, fungal, protozoal or viral etiology. The etiological agents among viral opportunistic infections are often found in the herpes virus group, i.e., Herpes simplex virus (HSV), Varicella Zoster virus (VZV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and, especially, cytomegalovirus (CMV). Other retroviruses affecting humans are HTLV-I and II and examples of retroviruses affecting animals are feline leukemia virus and equine infectios anaemia virus.
Hepatitis B virus infections cause severe disease such as acute hepatitis, chronic hepatitis, fulminant hepatitis in a considerable number of persons. It is estimated that there are 200 million patients with chronic hepatitis B infection in the world. A considerable number of the chronic cases progress to liver cirrosis and liver tumours. In some cases the hepatitis infections also take a rapid and severe course as in fulminant B hepatitis with about 90% mortality. At present there is no known effective treatment against hepatitis B infections.